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Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow

December 2nd, 2013

Now we are back to the old quarterback question. Mike Glennon looks more and more like a decent starter in the NFL. He is starting to get better with his long throws; a little inconsistent, but better.

But here’s the rub: Glennon is still the worst quarterback in the division. How high of a ceiling does he have? Is he near the ceiling now?

And in a quarterback league, if you have the worst quarterback in your division, how realistic is it to expect a winning season much less a playoff berth?

Joe doesn’t think drafting a quarterback in the first round should be off the table. Glennon is Schiano’s guy. But will Team Glazer intervene? They don’t usually but it has happened in the past. Remember how Chucky was jettisoned, in part, because he wouldn’t draft a franchise quarterback? Chucky had a far better NFL resume than Bucs commander Greg Schiano.

Speaking of the draft (coughJohnnyFootballcough), would it be insane for the Bucs to draft a wide receiver, a burner, who can stretch the field? Joe loves Vincent Jackson but at this stage of his career he is like Keyshawn Johnson, dangerous but not a threat to go all the way.

How about in the second round, speedy, tall Wisconsin receiver Jared Abbrederis? You know, someone that has wheels to stretch the field. Often, these guys are found later in the draft and not on the first day.

Offensive Line Woes

Yeah, the offensive line did not have a good day, allowing Glennon to get sacked five times and really not generating much of a rushing game for Bobby Rainey. Instead of piling on the offensive line, Joe thinks it was more that Carolina could have the best front-seven in the NFL. Hey, the other team gets paid too and, sometimes, you just have to doff your cap to the better team.

Still, if Joe had his way, the Bucs should be eyeing Jake Matthews. The offensive line could use some fresh blood. But yeah, Joe knows Bucs rock star general manager Mark Dominik doesn’t like drafting offensive linemen.

Controlling The Ball

The Bucs had but 46 plays from scrimmage. You aren’t going to win many games by not moving the chains. It is that simple, unless the other team is going to play Santa Claus like Detroit did last week.

The Bucs defense couldn’t get off the field on third downs and the Bucs offense could not convert third downs, many of which were third-and-long. If teams win the third down battle, good chance they win games.

Broken Record

Too many stunts and ineffective blitzes resulted in Cam Newton having so much time he could order pizza while in the pocket. [click] Too many stunts and ineffective blitzes result in Cam Newton having so much time he could order pizza while in the pocket. [click] Too many stunts and ineffective blitzes result in Cam Newton having so much time he could order pizza while in the pocket. [click] Too many stunts and ineffective blitzes result in Cam Newton having so much time he could order pizza while in the pocket. [click]

When. Will. You. Freaking. Learn. Bill Sheridan? WHEN? The definition of insanity is repeating the same thing over and over and expecting different results. When Sheridan lets the pass rushers, you know, pass rush, good things happen.

Guess Joe is just going to have to get used to it. If it was going to change, it would have changed by now. (sigh)

Don’t Get Fooled Again

Bobby Rainey said the Bucs couldn’t run the ball, in part, because Carolina was doing things up front the Bucs had not seen before and didn’t expect. Joe is reading a book about Tom Landry (who coached Joe’s old high school coach) and the one thing Landry drilled in players’ heads was to be prepared for anything and everything.

Now Rainey wasn’t specific what the Panthers were doing up front and maybe it was more something he had never seen before. If that’s the case, no big deal. You play and you learn. But if the offensive line was getting handled because of being surprised, well, Joe suggests that may be on the coaching staff. The Bucs’ offensive line is full of veterans. They shouldn’t be surprised by anything.

Still Need Two Wins?

It sure seemed Team Glazer gave Schiano a vote of confidence last week. Joe has been on board that given all the nightmares Schiano had to put up with in August and September, that if he got five wins he would be safe given how hard the team has played.

Where are those two wins going to come from? Buffalo is pretty much a must-win in this scenario. But where is that elusive fifth win of the remaining opponents?

NFL thoughts:

Lions: What a schizophrenic team. One week they cough up the ball five times to the Bucs, four days later they blast the Packers. Of course, the Aaron Rodgers-less Packers.

Cowboys: Joe just isn’t impressed. Tony Romo is Peyton Manning lite. Puts up a lot of numbers but cannot be counted on for January.

Crows: What a fun game that was Thanksgiving night. The Crows, Joe thinks, are playoff bound. Snicker at Joe Flacco if you wish, but Joe would take him over Peyton Manning and Romo any day of the week. Yeah, Joe wrote that.

Jags: They are doing their best to blow the top pick in the draft. Not smart. Beating the Browns may say more about the Browns, however, than it does the Jags.

Patriots: Houston gave the Belicheats the scare, but still, we all live in Bill Belicheat’s world.

Colts: So Trent Richardson has been benched? Wow. Joe remembers how there were virtual fistfights on Joe’s site two years ago about the Bucs trading up to draft him.

Dolphins: The Jets are in a complete and total freefall. Ryan Tannehill torched the Jets secondary. Guessing Tannehill and his wife had a nice evening last night.

Eagles: Here is your NFC East champ, just watch. This was a nice win by the Fighting Chip Kellys. Holding the Cardinals to three touchdowns is pretty good.

Dixie Chicks: Matty Ice threw for 311 yards. Though Joe is becoming impressed with Bucs rookie quarterback Mike Glennon, the problem persists: The Bucs still have the No. 4 quarterback in the division. Until that changes, don’t think about playoffs much less a winning record.

49ers: Just beat the Lambs to a pulp. Vernon Davis went nuts. And when he has a great game, the 49ers often win.

Broncos: The regular season immortal did a good job of torching the Chiefs. The Broncos will win the division and flame out in the playoffs as Manning throws three picks. Just watch.

Bengals: All Andy Dalton does is win and make the playoffs. What a bum, huh? Pretty solid win by the Bengals as the Chargers were playing good ball.

Giants: So they beat the Redskins. Meh.

Non-NFL thoughts:

1) For the first time in 4,810 days, Florida State is ranked No. 1. Welcome back, Noles.

2) Joe is honestly trying to remember a better fourth quarter than Joe watched in the Auburn-Alabama game. Each team was throwing haymakers the whole quarter. And the ending? Couldn’t be beat. College football rocks.

3) Joe fully expects Auburn, if it wins against Missouri in the SEC title game – MISSOURI??? – they will face Florida State for the national championship.

4) In what twisted universe do we live in when Missouri – MISSOURI??? – plays in the SEC title game?

5) Joe doesn’t buy the “Ohio State doesn’t play anyone” nonsense for them not getting into the title game. The same complaint (largely by SEC types) is thrown at Florida State, for valid reasons. Teams can only play who is on their schedule (memo to SEC types: How about letting Florida State into the SEC since they never play anyone? Oh, you won’t do that, will you, frauds? So shaddap.) The difference is, Florida State pounds opponents. Ohio State lets glorified Division I-AA teams like Illinois, one of the worst teams in Division-I, rack up 35 points on them. Then Michigan scores 41, one of the worst offenses in the game. Letting garbage teams run up points is what kills Ohio State, not their schedule.

6) So Ohio State should be worried about Michigan State? What, are we talking hoops here? There may be no more overrated team in America than Michigan State. What have they done, exactly? So Sparty is supposed to have a good defense by holding Big Ten teams to low scores? Stop!

7) By the way, you cannot compare, like one Buckeye did, Ohio State’s team this year to the team that beat Miami for one of the greatest games in college football history. Back then the Big Ten was a decent conference. Michigan was still Michigan and JoePa was still running a good ship. Barry Alvarez had Wisconsin playing at a superior level. The Big Ten now is a total joke. It’s not much better than the MAC. So comparing Ohio State from 2002 to today doesn’t wash.

8) Duke is playing in the ACC title game. David Cutcliffe is coach of the year. There’s no arguing this. And how stupid was it that Ole Miss fired him? The Rebels have never recovered.

9) Is there still a chance Alabama could get back into the title game? If Auburn and Ohio State both lose this weekend, could Bama jump back up?

10) Mock Joe if you wish, but he will miss the BCS. Yes, really. Some of the greatest games of the past 10 years (Ohio State-Miami, Texas-USC) would have never happened without the BCS. While the BCS had its drawbacks, such as ruining the Orange Bowl, it has been a boon to college football. The game has never been more popular.

11) Oh, Black Friday. Joe cannot figure out why anyone would put up with this nonsense. You couldn’t have put a gun to Joe to make him go shopping on Black Friday. Joe did hear one report that a local Toys R’ Us was running low on pepper spray by 10 a.m.

28 Responses to “Yesterday, Today And Tomorrow”

I don’t buy the you play who is on your schedule argument. The reality is Urban Meyer did the schedule. He chose Florida A&M, Buffalo, Cal, and San Diego state. They are Ohio State every team in the country would like to play them. A home and home series with ASU, or a team like Oregon St. Or perhaps Clemson would be great.

The reality is this is what they want an undefeated season playing nobody puts them in the BCS. It only hurts the fans. Do you think Ohio State fans were excited to go to a home game against Florida A&M on Sept 20?

On the subject of college football, as a Florida State fan, it is amazing to me that Jimbo Fisher lost 11 players to the NFL, yet will play for the national championship, and you hear not a peep about him as Coach of the Year.

Hey Joe I fully agree with you on #3 and #10 non NFL thoughts. I think Auburn deserves to jump over Ohio State if they win the SEC. I too will miss the BCS system. I also think that many of fans might want to go back to it once they see how this playoff thingy shakes out. So how’s it going to be? Teams shoot for rankings 1-4 as long a they get that all is good? That sucks and I already don’t like the new system.

Wow that was easy to post, maybe my problem with the site and my pc is the site having too much traffic at the time. I don’t know, but damn it all I’m going to find out today if it is my pc or the site traffic. Having to unplug your pc just to get offline from JBF is not a good thing at all. I’ve already had to do it 3 times in the last week.

CT Bucs, these schedules are made a few years in advance, so I doubt Meyer had much say. The problem is, you can’t predict how a team will be three years after you add them to your schedule. FSU put Boise St. on their schedule for a couple years from now, and they’re already terrible again, so in a couple years no one will care that they beat them.
All of college football seems to be down this year, and that’s letting some teams get upsets and sneak up the rankings. Auburn has two fluky endings in a row and is suddenly better than the reigning champs? I’m an FSU fan, and I want Bama. We’ll get zero respect by beating Ohio St, and I still don’t think Auburn is better than Bama. Can’t wait for the playoffs to start next year.

@Tampabaybucfan Says:
“…Maybe Glennon is the worst because he is surrounded by the worst…”

Then again, maybe Glennon is the worst simply because he is what he is, not elite. We have to do better than that if we want to be successful, otherwise the Bucs will always be 2nd, 3rd, or 4th in our division, never the division champ

Let’s just make sure we aren’t reaching on a QB in the first round (if the Bucs go in that direction) because the NFC South is home to the best collection of QB talent in the NFL. There are four games left in the season and a lot can happen regarding wins and Mike Glennon’s production. I don’t know if any of the projected first round QBs are elite, so think about it; for all the fans that demand a QB to be selected in the first round, be it Johnny Football or some other guy, would that player step in and be the third best QB in the division? The second best? It’s more likely that Johnny Football would be the fourth best QB in the division. Sure, his ceiling as a prospect may be higher than Mike Glennon, but then again, maybe it isn’t on the pro level.

This isn’t the AFC East, with one all-time great in Tom Brady, two promising young QBs in Ryan Tannehill and EJ Manuel and one gigantic bust in Geno Smith, so if the Bucs end up with the 5th pick in the draft, the best option might be to trade down and grab an extra pick or two and fill in multiple needs, let Schiano have a full season with Glennon and if it all works out, the team is in the playoffs and most everyone is happy. If it fails, the team cleans house and likely has a high draft choice to target Jameis Winston, who I think has the potential to be one of the best QBs in any division.

The bottomline: Don’t reach when you have multiple holes to fill. Turnarounds in the NFL can be very quick, and Tampa Bay can be on that list as soon as next year, but you have to think about the big picture.

I disagree that we have the worst QB in our division. He is a rookie and is putting up better numbers than Ryan and Brees did their rookie years. Brees finished with a QB rating of 76.9 his first full year with San Diego.
Let’s face it, Glennon has V-Jax and the rest are basically scrubs. V-Jax is great catching the ball but how many times has that guy gone down with an ankle tackle or been caught from behind? Right now Glennon has Bobby Rainey as his RB and our O-Line is up one week down the next. If we do for him what Atlanta did for Ryan, go get a Julio Jones type receiver, then you will see Glennon’s full potential. Nicks needs to get healthy too. We need to address O-line, DE, and WR in the draft and FA.

I don’t see any slam dunk QBs in this draft, that can just come in and set the world on fire. I just wish Jameis was a RS soph this year.

The o-line needs to be completely rethought. Nicks is probably getting paid more than Revis when it comes to $ per games actually played. I see Penn on the ground way more than I should. His unraveling will be fast and furious. Newsflash to Mediocre Mark, talent matters on the OL. There’s a reason that good GMs draft them.

This is funny stuff to read. One time Glennon is smart progressing well but can’t throw a deep ball..Now he can. But one bad game against a team that allows an average of 13 pts a game, he is a bottom dewller and we must have “Johnny Football” Who WILL be ELITE because our web site experts have said so. The line was changed run game is better coaches were stupid not to figure this out before now.But now it sucks again. We still have a defense that gives up about 31 points a game and blows big leads. But in a couple games they get a few sacks how great they are and where have they been.

Just like the change in the weather. 3 good weeks of wins now it’s back to our “Johnny Football ” will be the best in the NFCS. And off to the Super Bowl we go!

Then again, maybe Glennon is the worst simply because he is what he is, not elite. We have to do better than that if we want to be successful, otherwise the Bucs will always be 2nd, 3rd, or 4th in our division, never the division champ
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Yes thats right if he’s not elite after 9 games he’ll never be elite. But then according to that logic, Brees nor Ryan nor Newton would be elite either.

In fact. I cant recall 1 QB that would fit into elite status after 9 games. Well since it’s never happened before we should never draft a QB again since he will never fulfill your desired eliteness right off the bat.

Joe I’m usually on boat w/ what you say but this “worst QB in the division” thing as to STOP!!!…let’s go over the draft let’s say since Cam as been drafted…PLEASE tell me a QB who has been drafted that’s better than Cam??????…Andrew Luck maybe but you see his struggles now that he doesn’t have the right pieces in place…if you take an QB that has been drafted since Cam NONE of those QBs would be better than the collection in the NFC South

I will go a step further, I will give you a chance to draft ANY QB this coming draft & there is no way that you can they are not the 4th best QB in the NFC South…if CAM NEWTON is the 3rd best QB in your division then you have NOTHING to be ashamed of!…we can win a lot of games w/ Glennon if we focus on building the TEAM & not looking to replace a very good QB!

Just the other day Glennon was the best Bucs rookie QB ever, now he’s a question mark. And if he wins the next game he’ll be back to being “the real deal.” The bottom line is that we do not know if Glennon is a good quarterback and we won’t know until probably his third year, if he gets three years here or elsewhere as a starter. I know Joe has to use hyperbole to get readers coming back, but the flip-flops over Schiano and also Glennon are getting old.
Joe’s not flip-flopping. Joe’s been very consistent. But Joe can tell you that we won’t need the three years you reference to determine if Glennon is “good.” The jury is out on Glennon. We all know that. Every rookie, minus a very select few, is a rollercoaster ride. Joe’s riding it along with fans. The Bucs will have big QB decisions to be made this spring, especially if they land a top draft pick. –Joe

Not sure that is fair. Might be fairer to compare first year Glennon vs. first year Ryan, Cam, and Brees. Remember how mightily Cam struggled last year? Brees didn’t take off until he was traded.

Plus Glennon was thrown into a horrific situation without that many reps with the first team in preseason.

I have changed my tune on this, because the kid has shown a lot more than I thought he had. Some really high level passing. Chucky is right, this kid can make all the throws. Use our picks for other areas IMO.

Good grief this kid (Glennon) is a rookie. His NFL body of work so far is probably on par with or better than most of the other franchise QB’s rookie seasons, but because he’s a 3rd round pick and Schiano’s guy instead of a 1st round pick by (insert flavor of the week coach) some people are having a real hard time saying “it’s all about number 8”. He learns from his mistakes and has been improving up until the Carolina game. I see a kid who has the potential to be a more accurate QB than Newton with a stronger arm than Ryan. Brees is an elite QB in the perfect system for his skills, but I’d be happy with Glennon becoming the #2 QB in the South.

Don’t compare Glennon to the others in NFC South yet because, Bree’s has a Jimmy Graham (who succeeded Jeremy Shockey). Ryan’s had Tony Gonzalez. Newton has Greg Olson. The Bucs havn’t had a tight end to throw to so Glennon is minus the most important component to a good offense, a big fast TE who can get open and catch it.

Brees had Reggie Bush and Sproles to dump off to. Ryan used to dump it to Turner. Those guys were great receiving backs. Newton doesn’t need a check down back because when everybody is covered he tucks it and runs.

When the Bucs get that much needed tight end and have depth at WR Glennon will be a good passer. C’mon man, he’s throwing to Tim Wright and Underwood, those are backups. Newton’s #2 Laffell is better than Underwood. When Ryan had Jones and White together, they are better than Jackson/Williams at their best. Brees has Meachem and had Lance Moore that could stretch the field so Graham and Colston get open intermediately.

Glennon cannot be compared because the Bucs have no tight end, no good secondary targets and run a primitive NFL offense.